By IANS,
Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said here Friday that his government has improved the infrastructure as also the common man’s living standard – something which should be the criteria for judging the progress of any state.
Addressing the state level Independence Day function held at the Lal Parade ground here, Chouhan said that while freedom is our birth right, we have to strive constantly to uphold.
“The ‘Lok’ (public) is not subordinate to ‘Tantra’ (system) in the state but it is the people who are giving the direction to the system,” he said.
Holding of Panchayats for various sections of society at the chief minister’s residence, Chouhan said, has been the largest ever exercise to elicit the opinion of the different sections of people before taking decisions for them.
The chief minister said that the common man was central to the schemes and programmes of his government and their betterment was the only criterion of progress.
Referring the works for improvement of infrastructure the chief minister said that 3,147 MW power generation capacity has been created over last four and half years, transmission losses have been reduced from eight percent to four percent, 30,000 new transformers have been installed and the cess of captive power units has been abolished.
Power tariff for farmers had been reduced to a great extent and over 300,000 irrigation pump set power consumers have benefited under Krishak Rahat Yojana, he said.
Chouhan further said Madhya Pradesh government had done historic work in the road sector by constructing and upgrading 40,000 km of roads during the period and claimed the state was on the top in attracting private capital investment in the road sector.
The chief minister said that the state government has given priority to augmenting irrigation facilities and the budgetary allocation for water resources department has been increased from Rs.7 billion to Rs.15 billion with the result that the annual increase in irrigation potential has gone up from 50,000 to 100,000 hectares.
In the 11th Five Year Plan, he said, a target has been fixed to increase the irrigation potential by 700,000 hectare asserting that that special efforts have been made to turn agriculture into a lucrative proposition.